Learning to Fall
by Alexxii
Summary: James and Lily's last year at Hogwarts and James has finally grown up. Can Lily learn to fall in love before James learns to let go? Please R&R.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: Please read and review. I'd love to know what you think!

Chapter One

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Lily Evans sat there, alone waiting for someone she knew to show up. The platform was full of moving people but she didn't see any friendly faces yet, so she just sat on the bench and waited. She closed her eyes and hummed softly to herself thinking of the summer that had passed. She took a deep breath, trying to clear her head of any bad thought about the future. She had a feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong this year. She shook it off and went back to trying to keep calm.

"Boo!" Alexi Faye shouted as she nearly fell on top of her friend. Lily jumped, snapping her eyes open and laughed before giving the girl a hug.

"Hey, Lexi! How was your summer? I missed you!" Lily exclaimed still hugging her giggling friend.

"I saw you two weeks ago Lily," her friend responded laughing. The girls laughed together for a few minutes until they heard a whistle. "Come on! We're going to miss the train!" Lexi pulled on Lily's arm nearly dragging her the whole way from the bench to the train. The two laughed and then another girl snuck up behind them.

"I thought I heard the two of you laughing," the third girl stated.

"Cami!" they both shouted hugging her.

"Yeah, yeah. Come on; let's go we need to sit down!" Cameron Green exclaimed snapping the other two back into reality. They walked all the way down to the end of the train when they realized there were no open seats, and they were standing in front of the marauders compartment. "Lily…" The two girls saw her slowly sneaking away.

"Okay, there is no way I am sitting in there with HIM. And besides I have to go to the head's compartment, tell Remus to hurry up and do the same, and Lexi, don't forget there's a prefects meeting in like 10 minutes so don't be late," Lily walked off hoping her friends would let her and they did. She could hear them both sigh though as they went into their compartment.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" Cami asked sweetly.

"Course not," Sirius smiled pointing to the seat next to him. Cami rolled her eyes and sat down next to him noticing how he scooted closer to her as she sat. Lexi walked over and sat next to Remus, he smiled at her and she smiled back. No one talked for a long time and it was sort of awkward.

"POLAR BEAR!" Cami screamed making Lexi laugh.

"What?" Remus asked confused.

"I just broke the ice," she answered. It took everyone a minute but then they all started laughing.

"So, how was everyone's summers?" Lexi asked after Cami broke the ice and ended the awkward silence.

"Not bad," Remus answered.

"Okay," said Sirius.

"Wow, you guys are totally lame, mine was completely bloody awesome!" Cami screamed making Lexi laugh.

"You are so loud, Cam!" Lexi shouted back. When she realized that she had shouted she laughed.

"Hey it's getting kind of late, we need to get going to the prefects meeting Lexi," Remus said preparing to get up.

"Oh yeah speaking of prefects, if you're here whose Head Boy? Oh yeah! And where's James?" Lexi asked looking at both Remus and Sirius for this one. The two boys looked at each other and Sirius smirked.

"Think about the question you just asked. You kind of answered it," he responded.

"Oh! God no! Lily's going to kill him! Lex, Remus, go now, hurry, or he might never make it to Hogwarts!" Cami exclaimed rushing them out the door. Lexi and Remus walked together, rushing, to get to the compartment before the other prefects, so they could break up the fight before anyone else had to witness it. But when they got to the compartment, what they saw was even more shocking.

Lily walked away from her friends heading towards her compartment excited to see who she was going to be working with, she was nearly positive that it was going to be Remus, but since he was in the compartment she had no idea who it could be. She opened the door to the compartment and she felt a certain rush stream through her body. Anger. What was James bloody Potter doing in there?

"Potter, what exactly do you think you're doing?" Lily said angrily through her gritted teeth. James looked up from what he was doing and half smiled then looked back down to what appeared to be a book or journal.

"Oh, hello, Lily. You're late, but that's okay," James answered, turning the page of whatever he was reading.

"Get out," she ordered pointing to the door. She was so angry that James swore he could see fire in her eyes. Her eyes. He thought she was so beautiful, but he had to focus on being controlled, calm, responsible, this was going to be a long year. He took a deep breath and tried to play off as cool.

"No, actually I got here first. And besides I have all the right to be here, just as you do," he responded. Lily's eyes quickly darted down to his robes, and the shiny badge on it that said 'HEAD BOY'. She froze, in shock, and gaped at him, completely awestruck. Lily was so angry and so livid that she wished she could just punch him, but that would just be completely unprofessional of her. She took a deep breath and sat down across from him. He tried to suppress the smile that was fighting its way to his lips but he knew if he let it slip eve just for a second, then he would truly never have a shot with Lily.

"What are you reading?" she asked in a calm, collected voice, although her hands were balled up into fists, sinking into the sides of her legs. He looked up at her and a slight smirk danced across his lips, this only made the feeling of wanting to cause him pain more intense.

"It's actually a journal," James said avoiding her eyes and looking back at the wrinkly pages.

"Who's journal?" Lily pressed on. James looked down and then looked back up at her and he gave her a sort of apologetic look.

"It's, well, it's mine," he explained a slight, barely noticeable blush rising to his cheeks. The tone of his voice confused her.

"What's it about?" she asked continuing to push him toward telling her the truth.

"I-I can't tell you, sorry Lily," James answered, with the same tone again. Maybe, Lily thought, a different tactic might work. She leaned in very closed to him, so closed, he could feel her breath on his face and he could hear her heart beat.

"Please tell me?" she asked. James blinked a few times trying to focus on staying true to his friends, but it was hard for him to concentrate when Lily was that close to him. He opened his mouth to answer her and then the compartment door swung open and in the doorway stood a very confused Lexi and Remus. Lexi nearly screamed but Remus prevented her to by asking them the question they really need an answer for.

"What exactly is going on here?" he asked with the sound of a smile on his lips. Lily jumped back nearly two feet and then landed on the compartment floor.

"Absolutely nothing," Lily responded sounding angry. Remus looked at Lexi and she smiled at him, it was hard not to. She giggled.

"You two better get your act together because all the kids will be here pretty soon and you don't want them walking on to something like this. Actually, maybe you should, it would definitely make my day better," Lexi said making Lily glare at her. Lexi and Remus sat down across from James and Lily, who was not particularly happy about the seating arrangements.

"Why do we have to sit like this?" Lily complained. Remus looked at Lexi and she smiled.

"Because," she answered simply still smiling at Remus. James opened his mouth to say something and he looked directly at Lily.

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot, Lily.." he started. She glared at him and then snapped her usual cold shoulder response.

"No, I will not go out with you Potter," Lily glared.

"Well, someone seems to be slightly full of themselves, I wasn't going to ask you out," he answered simply she almost gawked at him. "I just wanted to know if we were doing rounds, or if I was with Remus? Or with Lexi?" Lily still seemed too shocked to answer.

"You'll be with Lils, James, Head boy and girl are obligated to patrol together unless like, it's a special occasion or if you really are too immature to put up with each other for a few hours," Lexi began.

"I think you're lying just so you can patrol with my best mate," James said jokingly, making Lexi blush.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she answered looked at her feet.

"Am I missing something?" Lily asked looking between Lexi and Remus confused.

"No," Lexi said slowly looking next to her. Remus smiled and she smiled back. Just then all of the other prefects walked in and Remus and Lexi blushed and quickly looked away from each other. Lily smiled and greeted all the prefects sweetly.

"Well, hi. I'm Lily Evans, Head Girl, and this year things are going to run a little differently. With the, well, erm, circumstances we have to be more, careful this year. Only the seventh year prefects are allowed to do night patrolling after curfew unless given special direction by either James, or myself," she pointed to James making every prefect grin mischievously, "Okay James, your turn."

"As you all know I am James Potter and I am head boy. I know what you're all thinking, and you're wrong. You're not going to get away with everything because although I may be a joker or however you like to phrase it, this year, like Lily said we al have to be careful and take precautions. At some point everyone has to grow up, this year it is very important for everyone to be attentive while they are patrolling so no fooling around, with the war going on, we all have to have each other's backs. We might be four different houses, but we are one school, and if we don't see everyone working together while patrolling then you will have your privileges revoked. So, I hope we see everyone's best effort," James said then sat down. Everyone looked completely shocked, especially Lily.

"Okay guys, meeting over, go back to your compartments; you all know who you're patrolling with. We'll take all the shifts until our next meeting when we will tell you your shifts, thanks!" Lexi announced. Everyone walked out of the compartment except for the original four already in there. Lily who till looked shocked snapped out of it.

"Hey, did you just do my job?" she asked her best friend. Lexi laughed.

"You're welcome," she responded with a smile. Pretty soon the train pulled into the station and everyone got ready to leave.

"Are you coming Lily?" James asked turning back to her before he left the compartment.

"I'll be just a minute." she answered with a half-hearted smile. After he left the compartment she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This was going to be a long year.


End file.
